The Betrayal
by LovemyPadfootMarauder
Summary: Damon's take on the night at their father's graveside. Episode 1x13 Children of the Damned
1. Chapter 1

What the hell?! Well I guess I shouldn't be surprised, this isn't the first time he's lied to me. But Elena. My heart felt like it was being torn in two. I can't believe I was stupid enough to trust her. She was Stefan's not his. And she never would be.

"Well what do you know?" I'd asked sarcastically. "This is an interesting turn of events."

"I cant let you bring her back." Stefan said no emotion on his face. "Im sorry"

"So am I. For thinking for even a second that I could trust you." I forced every ounce of betrayal into every word.

"You are not capable of trust. The fact that you're here means that you read the journal and you were planning on doing this yourself." Stefan stated gesturing to the hole in the ground.

"Of course I was going to do it by myself because the only one I can count on is me." I said harshly. "You made sure of that many years ago, Stefan. But you," I continued with genuine hurt and betrayal, "you had me fooled." I nodded my head with tear filled eyes that I was determined not to let fall.

All she could do was stare at me, guiltily with her sad eyes. At least she had the decency to look guilty. All Stefan did was stare as if he truly felt nothing but true conviction that he was going the right thing.

"So what are you going to do now?" I asked. "because if you try and destroy that, I'll rip her heart out."

"You wont kill her." Stefan said with grim certainty.

I gave him a look that clearly said watch me and was suddenly grabbing Elena from behind. Her terrified body pressed tight against mine as she struggled to get free.

"But I can do one better." I said with venom and I bit into my wrist and pressed it to her mouth forcing her to get even a small bit into her system. "Give me the book Stefan, or I'm snapping her neck. And you and I will have a vampire girlfriend."

Stefan looked at me in horror. He couldn't let me have Katherine and he certainly wouldn't let Elena become one of us. To him that was worse than death.

"Let her go first."

"The book."

"I am not going to give this to you until she is standing next to me." He looked absolutely terrified.

"The problem is that I no longer trust that you'll give it back."

"You just did the one thing that ensures that I will." Stefan said with conviction and I knew he wasn't going to lie with Elena's life at such a high risk.

He set the book slowly on the ground.

I turned my face into Elena's hair almost lovingly. I closed my eyes and held her for a second more before I lightly kissed her hair and guided her toward Stefan with my hand lightly on the back of her head. He had his hand out eager for her to be in his arms.

She moved slowly terrified that if she moved to fast I'd strike, but I wouldn't and soon enough he was holding her and getting her away as fast as possible.

I looked at them both not knowing what I should feel. I picked up the book and left.

My head was spinning and my heart was aching after so many years of it lying dormant in my chest. Anger, Betrayal, sadness, uncertainty, love and disappointment. I only knew that the uncertainty was the strongest. I should feel happy, right?

Katherine would be free soon. I would have her back! Then why did I still feel so bad?


	2. Chapter 2

I read each page completely. I was definitely not going to miss the page I needed. Worry tugged at the edge of my mind but I pushed it away. Once Katherine was free he'd make sure Elena was alright.

"Ana took Elena." Stefan said walking quickly into the room clearly upset.

I sighed unconcernedly "Yeah I got that from your six hundred voicemails." I said with a certain nonchalance my eyes never leaving the grimwayre.

"Damon, all night long, every street in town I've been searching." Stefan said. "What if your blood hasn't passed out of her system?"

With a hint of irony I said, "Well at least you know you'll see her again." Still I never once looked up. But I could no longer ignore the guilt that I wasn't out there trying to find her.

Stefan crouched down so he was closer to being in my line of sight. "Please." He begged. "What do you know? You were with Anna you must know where she's living, just tell me where I can find her."

I glanced at him and the worry etched on his face was almost too much to bear. "Nope, you can go. Really." I said with a hint of a smirk, my heart not fully into to sarcasm, but I couldn't show him any emotion but disdain.

"You know all I can remember is hating you. There might have been a time when that was different but your choices have erased anything good about you." He said and I didn't let him see how much it cut me to the core hearing him say that. "But see I also know that you have just as much reason to hate me." His voice was soft but not kind. "This all began with me. Katherine got taken away from you because of me."

I titled my head to the side and listened to him, anger filling my core. "And I'm sorry.

"Apology accepted." I answered with a slight hint of a breathless laugh.

"So please, just tell me what you know. It's Elena, Damon if you know something, tell me." He emphasized her name with pain and desperation but all I could feel was anger at him for having everything that I wanted.

I sighed and stood and he stood with me. "I mean this sincerely," I lied. "I hope. Elena. Dies." I wanted her to live at the same time that I wanted her dead, because Stefan got to have her. Any woman Stefan loved I wanted gone, just so he could feel half the pain I've felt all these years. But Elena was too good, too good for me. Stefan had always been the good brother not me.


	3. Chapter 3

I shrugged on my jacket with a grim but determined expression. I heard footsteps in the doorway and I thought it was Stefan come to plead for Elena's life. I was wrong. I held back a jump when I saw Elena enter the room.

I felt a sharp pang in my heart. I really thought Anna might kill her out of spite.

But all I could do was stare at her. Her straight hair falling in sheets around her face that so resembled Katherine's. She smiled at me sadly and my heart almost jumped out of my chest.

I reached for my arrogant front and said. "I'm going to have to change the locks. Did you stage a jailbreak?" I asked her with hidden curiosity.

"Stefan" Was all she said.

"Ah. Brother." I drummed my fingers on the table. "Ever the white knight."

"I convinced Bonnie to help you." She told me. I so wanted to believe her but her actions last night made me know I couldn't.

"I doubt that." I said shortly.

She started to walk around the railing. "I'm not going to say that I'm sorry we got the grimwayre without you last night, because I'm not really."

"Well at least your honest." I said with a sarcastic smile on my face.

She looked at me with feeling. "I was protecting the people I love Damon." She sighed. "But so were you. In your own twisted way." I shifted uneasily, unable to hold still. "And as hard as it is to figure, we're all on the same side, after the same thing."

I crossed my arms and pushed off the desk behind me. "Not interested." I replied starting to walk away.

"Yes you are, because you were willing to work with us yesterday." She said urgently at my retreating form.

I turned slowly and leaned my head in her direction. "Fool me once, shame on you."

"Okay, when we were in Atlanta why didn't you use your compulsion on me?" She asked me in a breathless voice.

I turned and walked toward her clearly mishearing what she was saying. "Who's to say I didn't?" I asked with a hint of a knowing smile.

"You didn't."

I nodded my head at her wordlessly conveying 'really now'. "I know you didn't but you could have." She said with a slight smile and she took a few steps towards me. "You and I," She paused, "We have something." I looked down slightly swallowing the rising lump in my throat. "An understanding. And I know that my betrayal hurt you." My brows furrowed, seemingly of their own accord. I didn't want to know what she had to say, because I knew it would be the truth. "Different from how it is with you and Stefan, but I'm promising you this now, I will help you get Katherine back."

I looked at her in disbelief and I wanted to badly to believe her, to trust her. "Oh. I wish I could believe you." I said in a pained voice.

Elena reached up behind her neck and slowly unclasped the necklace the held vervain inside. "Ask me if I'm lying now." She said bravely holding it up to show me before leaning forward and placing it on the table. Her movements confident, showing none of the fear I knew she had inside her.

I looked at it lying there and felt a urge to yank it out of her reach so that she didn't grab for it, but I didn't.

I took a couple steps forward in an almost predatory way. "You know I wont stop by the way no matter what I do.

She breathed in a shaky breath and said, "Then we'll deal with it." Our faces were only inches apart.

I leaned to the side and picked up the necklace almost reluctantly. I wanted to badly to compel her to tell me everything about their plans and more importantly how she felt about me. I couldn't do it, not to Elena, she was too special.

I shook my head and separated the necklace so I could place it back around her neck. I reached under her hair and the soft skin of her neck brushed my hands as I gently clasped the necklace back to be her neck. My hands tingled where they touched her and I could feel the goosebumps that rose on her skin at my touch. It gave me a strange feeling of pleasure to know that my touch affected her, bad or good.

In a soft voice I spoke, "I didn't compel you in Atlanta because we were having fun, and I wanted it to be real." My arms dropped to my sides and she looked at me with her deep brown eyes. "I'm trusting you, don't make me regret it." I said in a tight voice with concealed emotion, though I didn't know what emotions I was concealing. Unable to bear another second with her looking at me in her special way I turned and walked away. Forcing myself not to look back.


	4. Chapter 4

I stood there in the dark listening impatiently to the witches' chant. The torches flared up and the stone door slid open. I walked to the opening and looked to Elena, "You ready?"

"What?" Elena asked with a wary glance at me.

"Like I'm going to go in there by myself so you can seal me in." I said glaring at the Bennett Witches. I yanked Elena to my side harshly but I didn't care. I could feel her shock but I didn't let it effect me.

"Don't take her in" the older witch warned. "I'll bring the walls down."

They really thought I would fall for that! "You'll bring the walls down if I don't, you think I trust you?" I sneered.

"As much as I trust you." She countered.

I was about to make an angry retort but Elena cut in. "Enough, both of you. Look he needs leverage. He needs to know that your not going to shut the door when he gets inside." Smart girl, "I get it."

She looked at me with her trusting eyes so unlike Katherine, "I'll go."

Well I wasn't going to miss my chance. I reached down for one of the torches, "May I?"

I walked inside the tomb with Elena right behind me. I let her follow me down the steps. My eyes darting around everywhere, searching for Katherine. I was so close. I forced myself not to race through the tomb to keep Elena near me, if anything happened to her Stefan would have my head.

The starved vampires deep inside made a desperate chilling moan when the sensed Elena and her blood. "What is that?" Elena asked me in a scared voice.

"The can sense you." I answered softly. "Now where is she?" I asked to no one. I used my vampire speed to race ahead of Elena and deeper into the tomb.

"Damon!" I heard Elena call after me but I just kept searching a bag of blood in one hand the torch in the other.

I saw the others I looked into each of their half dead faces and saw Katherine in none of them. I've waited for her all these years and now when I finally find a way to get her out I can't find her. Where are you Katherine! My dead heart was slowing ripping in half leaving me feeling drained and weak. The only thing I've ever wanted always slipping out of reach, not this time. No not this time. I let my love for Katherine turn me against my little brother. The little brother I once loved so much. If there was no Katherine any longer all that hatred was for nothing. Katherine had to be there, she had to be.

I turned around hearing Elena scream in terror. I itched to help her but I couldn't leave my search.

My heart tightened with panic. Katherine wasn't here she was never here. Where is she! I pounded my fists in desperation, no! I picked up a bag and shoved it down. I kicked it savagely.

"She's not here." I murmured deliriously.

"Damon." I heard Stefan say.

"She's not here."

"What?" he asked.

I couldn't take it anymore. "She's not here!" I screamed in pain, hurt, anger, and frustration. I threw the blood bag against the wall and blood went streaming down. Stefan stared at me in shock at a loss for anything to say.

"Stefan they cant hold it much longer!" I heard Elena racing down the steps.

"Damon we need to get out of here." Stefan said to me but I barely heard him.

"It doesn't make sense they locked her inside." I said shaking my head. I was so close to my breaking point.

"If we don't leave now we're not getting out." Stefan said to me loudly.

"How could she not be in here?" I said outloud.

"It's not worth spending all eternity down here, she's not worth it." Stefan said to me begging me to listen. He put his hand on my shoulder and I flung myself around shaking him off with a growl. "No!" _I don't care_ I thought, if I couldn't have Katherine what else would I have to live for. Then she was there, Katherine. No it was just Elena I thought with heart wrenching disappointment.

"Damon!" Elena called to me with concern. "Please." She begged me. All I could think was Elena. She was the only thing able to pull me out of that tomb. I shrugged my jacket back up and followed her out.

The stone door slid shut behind me and I put my hands to the wall. In darkness I turned and watched Elena hug Stefan tight.

I watched Elena and Stefan run to her brother without really seeing anything. I stared at the ground feeling completely empty. For over a century my goal was to open the tomb and release Katherine, to have her back in my arms after so long. That dream was shattered into a million pieces, never to put back together. The feeling of losing Katherine was as strong as it was the night they took her away in 1864. Almost a hundred and fifty years later I could still feel the icy terror that clenched my heart when she was put into the back of the wagon. I had buried that feeling of loss so far down covering it with the hope of Emily's spell. There was no hope left, the loss consumed me so completely I could barely keep myself standing. Then Elena, who reminded me so much of Katherine but at the same time was so different, walked over to me. Her eyes filled with sympathy for my grief, and wrapped her warm arms around me and held me tightly. I lifted one frozen hand to lightly touch her lower back. Even her soft and loving touch couldn't save me from the ocean of pain I was drowning in, nothing could.


End file.
